To Cross a Wasteland

by Phillip D Granath

  A handful of shots followed him into the darkness, but one voice was shouting louder than the rest.

  “Coal!!! You’re a dead man, I’m going to kill you Coal, you son of a bitch!” Rory screamed.

  Kyle risked a glance back, to his surprise the horse that had been next to the one he now rode lay dead, apparently shot by Murphy’s own men in the confusion. The rest of the horses, all twelve of them were gone and the line they were tied to with them. A faint cloud of dust illuminated by the campfire marked their escape. Kyle laughed out loud in victory, the horse began to pick up speed racing faster into the darkness, nearly throwing Kyle off of the animal's back. It was at this point Kyle realized there was no way he was going to be able to reach the fallen reins.

  Back in the wash the boom of the distant gunfire made everyone freeze and look to the West. Coal, however, had been waiting for the sound.

  “The gig is up, everyone onboard, now damn it!” he screamed and climbed back on to the Palomino’s back.

  Dante, Pauli, and Juan all immediately turned and ran back to join Miles in the relative safety of the wagon. Anna however turned and stared towards the West her body was tense and as the sound of gunfire increased so did her terror.

  “Doc, get in the fucking wagon!” the half-breed shouted.

  Anna turned and ran back to the wagon, but not to climb inside, she stopped next to the mounted Indian and glared up at him. Even in the darkness, Coal could see she was furious.

  “You said he was just going to watch the camp!” Anna screamed at him.

  “I lied?” Coal offered in response, raising his hands.

  “You fucking bastard, it should be you out there and not Kyle!” Anna shouted, tears creeping into her voice. The sound of sporadic gunfire continuing behind her.

  “That’s exactly what I told him Doc, but your man has got his own ideas, and he’s in charge of this little outing. My job was to get you all to the end of the creek bed, wait for him as long as possible and then push on to the gas station, with or without him,” Coal said simply. “Now how about you climb aboard before we miss our rendezvous,” Coal added and to his relief Anna climbed up on the buckboard without any further debate.

  “About fucking time,” Coal mumbled to himself and then urged the team forward.

  The wagon quickly picked up speed, but Coal was careful to keep the animals in check. The shifting creek bed was still an easy place for a horse to trip and break a leg in the darkness. Coal also had the feeling they would need every bit of the horse’s strength before the day was out. He had played a part in enough ambushes to know that Kyle’s little gamble tonight would either shatter the Ranger’s spirit and send them running for town or enrage them even further.

  Not ten minutes later Coal began having trouble finding the creek’s true bed in the darkness. A dozen shallow dried channels began to appear on either side of the team. Coal looked to his left and mounted on the horse’s back could now see over the edge of the creek’s bank, a few more wagon lengths would have then out on the open plain. He pulled the team to a stop.

  “This is the spot, after this, we’ll be in the open. Everyone keep your mouths shut and your eyes open. We’ll be waiting here for Kyle as long as we can,” Coal spoke over his shoulder to the wagon. Anna was the only one to respond.

  “That’s right, we will, we’ll wait as long as we need too,” she said. Perhaps it was the tone of her voice or the fact that Coal had on more than one occasion had a member of the opposite sex, to include a wife try and kill him, but her words made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. He turned slowly on the horse’s back until he could see Anna sitting on the buckboard. Sure enough, she was holding Dante’s shotgun and had it pointed directly at his back. Coal turned back around to watch the trail ahead.

  “Do you even know how to fire that thing?” Coal asked.

  In response, he heard the dual hammers cock. “Don’t worry, Dante just showed me, and I’m a quick study,” Anna replied.

  “Well, that was very…helpful of him…” Coal grumbled to himself.

  Kyle fought desperately to turn himself and mount the running horse properly. The animal was not cooperating, realizing it had a free head it was shifting its course erratically, weaving between and around bushes. The thorny branches of which scrapped at Kyle’s face and several times threatened to unhorse him completely. To make matters worse, an occasional gunshot would ring out behind him from the Ranger’s camp as the confusion continued. But none of the shots were preceded by the telltale whiz that Kyle had come to learn meant they were aimed at him.

  Finally, as the panicked horse began to slow Kyle was able to swing his leg over. He began to stroke the horse’s neck, trying to calm the animal as he had seen Coal do before. He found himself speaking nonsensical gibberish to the animal and was glad the half-breed wasn’t here to see him.

  “Who’s a pretty girl? You’re a pretty girl! Do I have a pretty apple for my girl? Well No…I don’t… I haven’t seen an apple in years. Do you even know what an apple is? I’d probably eat it myself, just being honest,” Kyle mumbled quietly.

  The words seemed to have the desired effect though, the horse began to slow to a walk and then meandered to a halt after a few minutes. She was still breathing hard from her panicked run, Kyle continued to stroke her neck in the darkness, and then after a time he risked leaning forward and found the fallen reins. He leaned back smiling, enjoying another small victory and then looked down at the reins in his hands skeptically.

  Kyle risked a look back from the direction he had run and could just make out the glow of the fire. He pulled the reins awkwardly to his right and then scooting forward with his hips tried to make the animal move. The horse found more interest in sniffing around at a bush than paying attention to him.

  “Come on, we got to go, let’s go,” Kyle urged only to be ignored.

  “I don’t have time for your horse bullshit, we got to go, or they are going to leave my ass behind,” Kyle then shouted, again the animal ignored him.

  “Fine then, we do it your way,” Kyle said and pulling hard forced the horse’s head around to point roughly east. He then raised the pistol into the sky and fired the last round in the cylinder.

  The horse’s reaction was immediate, and so was Kyle’s regret. The animal launched forward back into a full run within a few strides, and the Scavenger was left clinging helplessly to the horse’s mane and the useless reins for dear life. Kyle layout low across the animal's back, finding it the only way he could keep himself from toppling off as he absorbed the horse’s punishing gate. The darkness rushed passed him only broken by darker shapes of the desert brush. Kyle just held on as tightly as he could and prayed the horse had better night vision than he had.

  A few moments later Kyle’s prayers were answered, with no warning or regard for Kyle the horse veered hard to the left. Without a saddle to anchor him and with no real grip Kyle and the horse’s brief relationship ended, and the two parted ways. Kyle flew forward into the darkness alone. At some point mid fall Kyle realized why the animal had swerved, they had reached the edge of the creek bed. They can see better in the dark than people, Kyle had just enough time to realize before he struck the ground at the edge of the wash. The air erupted from his lungs, and white spots flashed before his eyes, and while the Scavenger’s sense went momentarily on hiatus, physics wasn’t quite finished with him yet. Kyle’s momentum carried his ragdoll body over the edge of the creek bed, and he rolled head over heels down the rocky embankment. Halfway down a random bush did what it could to slow his passing, the branches scratching at his face and momentarily returning a few of Kyle’s senses.

  Kyle landed on his back breathing hard and staring at the night sky without seeing much of anything. After a time, a shadow passed over him.

  “Kyle? Well, I’ll be damned,” Coal said with a grin.

  “Kyle?” he heard Anna call, and out of the darkness she appeared at his side. Kyle had enough sense to grin and
then promptly passed out.

  Blood & Water

  The horses raced across the open desert as a long trail of dust rose behind them in the half-light. Coal rode the Palomino yelling constant encouragements to both horses urging them on, guiding them across the sandy plain. Ahead of them, the rising sun was painting the eastern horizon in shades of reds and oranges. A small rise was directly in front of them less than a mile off now, and behind it, Coal knew they would find the small gas station that Kyle promised hid the water and with it their only hope of escape.

  Inside the wagon the groan of wood and squeak of rusty metal was constant. The wagon was being pushed to its absolute limits, and everyone seemed to sense this was going to be the last desperate push to escape the Rangers or die trying. Miles and Dante sat on either side of the tailgate watching their dusty back trail with their guns up and ready to shoot. Pauli and Juan sat curled up next to one another. Pauli bent down whispering in the boy’s ear, occasionally laughing, doing everything she could try and keep the boy distracted from his obvious terror. Anna sat in the middle of the wagon and cradled Kyle’s head in her lap. She had cleaned and treated a few of his cuts with ointment and now just stroked his hair gently. Kyle came awake with a start.

  “Kyle!” Anna cried and knelt her head down to his, her tears falling onto his face.

  “Where are we?” Kyle asked confused.

  “Almost to the gas station,” Anna explained. “Coal wants us to get there before the daylight shows our dust, we have been pushing hard for half an hour or so.”

  “Kyle, what happened at their camp?” Miles called over the noise of the wagon, and every eye turned towards Kyle.

  Anna helped Kyle into a sitting position before he replied. “I spooked their horses, one was killed, and I stole another, but most of them ran off.” A wave of palpable relief flooded the small group, and both Dante and Miles lowered their guns for the first time since leaving the creek bed.

  Kyle turned to face Anna and added in a choked voice. “I killed two of them.”

  Anna looked into his eyes, she tried to smile and just shook her head in understanding even as tears streaked down her cheeks. Then she hugged him tightly.

  “You did what you had to son,” Miles said simply.

  “They would have done the same to you,” Dante added turning back to watch the desert behind them again.

  The wagon crested the edge of the rise with a brief shift of weight and then was headed back downhill, a moment later the wheels hit asphalt and the ride turned noticeably smoother. Kyle crawled forward and out onto the buckboard, just as the service station came into view ahead of them. Coal slowed the team down and brought them up to the concrete island in front of the burned out station as if he intended to top off. A pair of burned and rusting fuel pumps stood there uselessly.

  Coal climbed down from the Palomino and tied off the reins to the pump. Kyle crawled down, on not quite steady feet.

  “How did it go?” Coal asked him.

  “I was able to run their horses off, they were all tied to the same line, and it broke free when the shooting started,” Kyle said not wanting to explain it all again.

  “Well that’s not bad, could be worse,” Coal said scratching his head. “Tying them all to a single line that’s a rookie mistake, but if they stayed tied together like that they won’t make it very far before they get tangled up on something and then they’ll be easy to find.”

  Kyle simply nodded, “And?”

  “And Rory may not be that far behind us, so we need to get your water and get the fuck out of here,” Coal explained simply.

  “This way,” Kyle said and moved to the open garage.

  “We’ll need everyone’s help to load the water, Mile’s you stay in the Wagon, keep an eye out, we still may need to make a quick exit,” Kyle shouted back to the wagon.

  Inside the narrow garage, a piece of American steel sat at an odd angle slowly rusting away. In Its day it had been a Cadillac Eldorado convertible, now the big white behemoth was simply scrap. All of its glass had been broken out years ago, and it had been stripped of every bit of its cloth seats as well. The wheels and tires had been gone maybe even before the fall, and the heavy caddy rested flatly on its frame. While the group stood regarding the car, doubtfully Kyle went to the side of the garage and beneath a few discarded tires and several inches of sand pulled free a 5-ton floor jack. Dante joined him, and together the two men wrestled the jack into position.

  “Brush away the sand,” Kyle ordered, and Anna dropped down and began scooping away the sand with her hands. The chrome bumper rested flatly on the ground, except for a single spot at the bumper’s center where a spot had been crudely pounded flat.

  Anna jumped up, and Kyle and Dante moved the jack to the caddy. The jack’s lifting arm just fit into the dent. Once firmly in place, the two men began to work the handle furiously. The mechanism objected loudly but even as it squealed the arm slowly began to rise. It touched the chrome bumper, and a few moments later the Cadillac added its own sounds of protest as the frame began to slowly tilt and rise. Coal, Anna, Pauli, and Juan watched expectantly as the land barge rose higher and higher. Both Dante and Kyle were sweating profusely by the time the jack reached its limit and locked into place.

  Kyle dropped down to his knees and reached into the darkness under the car, a moment later he pulled free a section of cloth in a cloud of dust and followed by a piece of plywood. The group peered into the darkness beneath the car and could now clearly see a slot had been poured in the concrete floor. It was maybe three feet wide and ran the length of the garage. Even in the shadows, Coal could see an odd assortment of plastic and glass bottles, some stacked in boxes others just loose. Milk jugs, soda bottles even mason jars, each was filled with water. The balance of Kyle’s life savings.

  “How did you find this?” Anna asked in disbelief.

  Kyle reached into the space and pulling out a soda bottle of water he opened it, smelled the reassuring odor of bleach and handed it over to Anna.

  “I popped the hood, was going to strip what I could off of the engine. Then I accidentally dropped my screwdriver and noticed it fell a hell of a lot farther than it should have,” Kyle explained with a grin.

  “But what was it even used for?” Anna asked taking a drink from the bottle and then passing it over to Pauli.

  “It’s called a mechanic’s pit, makes working on cars a hell of a lot easier. My uncle had a service station with one just like that when I was a kid,” Dante explained and accepting the bottle from Juan and took his own swig.

  Kyle reached back into the darkness and pulled out a milk jug of water in each hand, these he handed to Coal.

  “For the horses,” he said simply, and Coal nodded and added with a grin. “On it boss,” and with that turned back to the wagon carrying the jugs at a run.

  “Everyone else, start loading the water,” Kyle said and began to pull bottles and jugs from the space.

  Dante and Anna loaded their arms and moved back toward the wagon. Pauli did the same, balancing an odd assortment of containers in her arms, followed by Juan, wrestling with a full milk jug. Then Anna grabbed an armload of plastic soda bottles, she gave a Kyle a quick smile before she turned to the wagon. Finally, Kyle pulled out a plastic milk crate full of bottles that he handed over to Dante.

  “Gee thanks,” Dante replied sarcastically.

  “You think someone would be more thankful after being handed a fortune in water,” Kyle remarked with a grin as Dante heaved the crate up and started for the wagon.

  Kyle pulled a pair of glass jugs out and crawled from the space, this was going to take several trips he realized, and then he still wasn’t convinced they would have enough water to make the crossing. He pushed the thought from his mind and turned back to the wagon. Just in time to see Rory and four Rangers crest the rise on horseback and charge.

  Kyle dropped the jugs he was carrying, they smashed against the ground at his feet. At the same moment, Miles
fired his pipe rifle from the rear of the wagon, the boom and the following cloud of smoke snapped the world into motion. The old man had fired too soon, and if the shot hit any of the riders it didn’t even slow them, but the charge split and several turned towards the wagons while others headed straight for those still in the open. Several of the Rangers began firing from horseback as they charged while others already had swords in hand.

  Pauli was closest to the wagon and dropping her bottles she grabbed Juan and literally threw the boy into the wagon, diving in after him a moment later. Kyle drew his magnum and pulled the trigger three times on spent cartridges before he realized he hadn’t reloaded it. A bullet zipped past him, striking the caddy, and sending Kyle running to his left.

  Dante was in the open not far behind Anna when he saw the riders he simply dropped the crate and then struggled to unsling his shotgun as a Ranger with sword dawn closed on him. He didn’t even get the barrel up before the Ranger’s sword struck him across the shoulder and neck. Screaming in pain Dante collapsed to the ground, firing the shotgun into the dirt as he fell. Blood spurted from his wounds as the Ranger rode passed and then wheeled his horse around for another charge.

  Anna screamed and ran to Dante’s side, the big man pawed at his neck uselessly trying to stem the flow of blood. In desperation, Anna pulled the shotgun up and away from the dying man, and as the rider closed on then, his sword held high for another strike she fired. The horse screamed and bolted away, mount and rider peppered with shot and bleeding from a dozen different wounds. She dropped the shotgun and tried desperately to stop Dante from bleeding to death.